A recent spate of federal funding retractions won’t impact a project geared toward making Atlanta streets safer and fast-tracking multimodal access between downtown and the Beltline, officials tell Urbanize Atlanta. 

Promising local impacts in cities and rural communities across the country, grants from the federal program Safe Streets and Roads for All, or SS4A, were announced in February 2023. 

The City of Atlanta came out a big winner with a $30-million max grant that calls for transforming two streets—Pryor Street and Central Avenue—to act as safer connections between downtown and the Beltline’s Southside Trail corridor. 

Two and ½ years later, construction has yet to begin, but an Atlanta Department of Transportation spokesperson says preliminary work is underway. “At this time,” the official noted in an email, “the [city] is not aware of any changes to or reallocation of the $30 million in awarded funds.”

Since the grant was announced, ATLDOT has finalized an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration for the SS4A and Pryor Safe Streets project. Under that agreement, work is expected to move forward in three phases, as outlined this week by ATLDOT: 

  • Base Phase: This includes preliminary design and National Environmental Policy Act work, costing $2.4 million in federal funds;
  • Option Phase 1: Final design, right-of-way acquisition, and utility work, totaling $9.8 million in federal funds;
  • Option Phase 2: Construction, supported by $17.7 million in federal funding.

ATLDOT is currently in the base phase, with design procurement underway. Going forward, each phase will be contingent on meeting specific conditions—primarily related to the environmental act—before work can proceed to the next funding stage. “Our grant’s period of performance runs through January 31, 2029,” wrote the ATLDOT spokesperson, “and we are on track with the established project schedule.” 

ATLDOT expects the full project design to be finished by September next year, as outlined in an FHWA agreement. Construction would follow that. 

Planned Complete Streets route from the BeltLine's Southside Trail near Hank Aaron Drive up to the heart of downtown. Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant Program

According to project plans released in 2023, protected bike and pedestrian facilities would be added where there is currently no north-south connection between downtown and the Beltline’s Southside Trail. The area is riddled with crash hotspots on Atlanta’s high-injury network.

Heading south, the safety improvements would start near Woodruff Park and Georgia State University, cross over Memorial Drive, and duck under interstates before meeting the Beltline at Milton Avenue—where a groundswell of residential development has taken shape in recent years and food-and-beverage hub Terminal South is nearing its debut. 

That’s a distance of just under three miles.

Safety upgrades along that route call for bike lanes, crosswalk lighting, roadway reconfigurations, medians, safer speed limits, and rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, among other changes.

Atlanta’s $30-million award marked the largest amount allotted to any project in the country—alongside a vision-zero safety plan in Philadelphia—in its round of 2023 grants.

The U.S. Transportation Department’s summation called the Atlanta project “a major expansion of the current system and bike network” that will boost safety and “promote mode shift from single-occupancy vehicles to more active transportation modes.”

The competitive grant program, as established by President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law, was expected to provide $5 billion over five years for regional, local, and Tribal initiatives, ranging from better sidewalks and crosswalks to redesigned roads. The broad goal was to help quell injuries and deaths on America’s streets and roadways, federal officials said.

The ATLDOT update follows recent news that downtown’s highway-capping Stitch project is losing the bulk of its funding—more than $150 million in federal cash previously approved by Biden’s administration—that was required to complete phase one. 

Stitch leadership has recently said the project will continue to move forward and seek alternate funding sources.

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